If you believe the polls, and many people here are wary even when they're favorable, then Washington voters are poised to legalize two things Californians haven't: same-sex marriage and marijuana.

With ballot measures on both issues before Washington voters Tuesday, the lessons learned from California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in 2008, and Proposition 19, which would have made marijuana legal but was shot down in 2010, have been echoing across Washington for months.

Some voters are noticing a different tone to the campaigns, with the issues being framed differently in a state where, in the case of marriage, there are proportionately fewer churchgoers than in California. In the case of the marijuana measure, there is far less political opposition from law enforcement.

"I feel like this campaign is coming from a different place than where Prop. 8 was coming from," Georgina Mendoza of Seattle, a 23-year-old graduate student and former Santa Barbara resident, told a canvasser supporting same-sex marriage who showed up on her doorstep this week.

"Prop. 8 seemed like it was all about civil rights and fairness. Which is good," Mendoza said. "But there's a lot more talk about family here this time."

In California and other states, polls often have shown early support for same-sex marriage and marijuana, only to have it fade as doubts and negative ad attacks swelled by election day. Across the nation, similar measures have been rejected in all 32 states where they have been on the ballot. Same-sex marriage measures are also on the ballots in Maryland, Minnesota and Maine.

Passed by Legislature

A survey released Thursday by the nonpartisan KCTS 9 Washington Poll shows that 58 percent of voters support Referendum 74, which asks voters whether they approve or reject a law approved by the Washington Legislature this year and signed in February by Gov. Christine Gregoire, while 38 percent oppose it. The marijuana-legalization measure, known as Initiative 502, has the backing of 55 percent of likely voters, with 38 percent opposed, according to the survey.

Washington has consistently been a socially liberal state, said Mark A. Smith, an expert on religion and politics and a University of Washington political science professor.

Drawing on national and local research led by Oakland pollster Amy Simon, supporters of same-sex marriage have crafted a campaign that focuses on connecting with voters about how marriage is a universal value. Their ads recount the journeys that straight pastors and parents of gay children have taken in coming to support same-sex marriage.

Besides allowing same-sex couples to marry, the measure would give clergy and religious organizations the right to refuse to perform or recognize any marriage ceremony.

Broadened outreach

People familiar with the California campaign in 2008 say same-sex marriage proponents have tried to broaden their outreach in Washington. Volunteers say at least half of the people staffing phone banks and performing door-to-door canvasses are straight.

"When we got married a year ago, I realized how important it is to me to say, 'This is my husband,' " said Jessica Gavre, a 29-year-old who spent her first anniversary this week making calls in support of the measure in Tacoma with her husband, Steven Green. "But our gay and lesbian friends can never say that. And that matters to me."

Democratic state Rep. Laurie Jinkins, the first openly lesbian member of Washington's Legislature, said convincing voters has involved a "slow buildup" over years. Three years ago, voters affirmed a domestic partnership law, often known as "everything but" marriage.

"Now they want the 'but,' " said the Rev. Victor Langford, an opponent of Referendum 74 who has been the pastor of a mostly African American Lutheran congregation in Seattle for 35 years. He has organized rallies against the measure around the state. If voters uphold the marriage law, Langford fears it would create a "gender-neutral society" where there are no men and no women. "Just persons."

Catholic opposition

Opposition to same-sex marriage in California was led by the Catholic Church - including a prominent role by now-San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who said "the ultimate attack of the Evil One is the attack on marriage."

But Catholic muscle has been tested in Washington. While Catholic leaders have taken strong positions against the measure, more than 1,000 self-described "committed Catholics" signed a full-page ad that ran in Sunday's Seattle Times urging voters to support the marriage measure.

"That was huge," Langford said. "The Catholics in the Seattle area are severely fractured. I have not seen that before."

Opposition to same-sex marriage is rooted largely in the more conservative part of the state east of the Cascade mountain range. In a pouring rainstorm this week, a dozen opponents of same-sex marriage met in a Walmart parking lot in Snohomish County, north of Seattle.

Before they moved on to hold campaign banners over an Interstate 5 overpass nearby, one of the opponents offered a prayer asking God for the strength to defeat the measure, "which in its power would be like Hurricane Sandy in changing our society."